


About Time

by Dociro



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Childhood Friends, F/M, Falling In Love, Friends to Lovers, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-26 14:36:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17143583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dociro/pseuds/Dociro
Summary: Rose's soulmark clock stops a second before she was meant to meet her soulmate. On the same day she meets James and their friendship begins.





	About Time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [HiddenTreasures](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HiddenTreasures/gifts).



> This is my DW Secret Santa gift for @lastbluetardis! Soulmates AU queen so posting this makes me super scared. I hope you'll like it. The prompt was: "Maybe this could be a friends to lovers/friends to soulmates story? They're friends first then after they realize they're in love, their soulmark clicks into place." Merry Christmas!

Every person has a soulmate. Some people know who their soulmate is since childhood, some meet their matches at school or university and other people have to wait a bit longer. Eventually everyone is matched.

 

When Rose was a small child she dreamed of meeting her one true love. Every night after going to bed she laid there and imagined how they will look like. Will the person be younger or older than her. What colour will their eyes be? And hair?

 

The soulmark, a clock on her wrist that was only visible for her and after meeting her match was meant to change into the soulmate’s name, was showing a remotely short amount of time, which meant that Rose wouldn’t have to wait very long to meet the perfect person for her. She should meet them a few months after her 10th birthday.

 

She was happy when she was big enough to understand that it wouldn’t be Mickey. He was okay, she liked to play with him and it was always fun when he and his granny visited them for dinner. Rose didn’t have a brother or sister, but she treated Mickey like one, so it was huge relief when she realised that he can’t be her soulmate.

 

She was also happy when Jimmy Stone moved to her neighbourhood and her soulmark was still showing two years to go. All the girls on the estate had a crush on Jimmy, but Rose didn’t like him. He was rude, was often making fun of her and her friends, and he was getting into fights with other boys. She couldn’t imagine spending her life with someone like him.

 

When the day finally arrived two months and 5 days after her birthday, Rose was beyond excited. She wore her favourite pink dress, asked her mum to plait her hair in a fancy way and decided to go out. It’s easier to meet someone outside, right? She sat on a swing and waited checking alternate her soulmark that was showing less than twenty minutes now and the surroundings that were worryingly calm so far. She was trying to be calm telling herself that there's still a lot of time for the person to come, but it was getting more difficult with every second.

 

When her clock showed 10 seconds to the meeting, she felt tears in her eyes. She wiped them and turned to see if someone was coming, but there was no one there. She looked at her wrist again

00:00:05

00:00:04

00:00:03

00:00:02

00:00:01

Rose quickly looked up again, but like for the last twenty minutes no one was there. The tears were furiously going down her cheeks now, she looked at her wrist and the numbers... didn’t change? The soulmark was still showing 00:00:01. How was it possible? She never heard of someone who didn’t meet their soulmate. Sure, there were people who for example, met and together decided that they don’t want to spend their lives together, but never that the soulmates didn’t even get to meet each other. It wasn’t that the soulmate didn’t appear, her clock just stopped. It froze at one second till the meeting. Was her soulmark broken? Does that mean she is broken? She doesn’t deserve to spend her life with the person that should be perfect for her?

 

The tears started streaming down her face with even more force. She jumped of the swing and run in the direction of a nearby park. There was a huge tree, that was growing a bit from the main path. It was usually very calmly there because, for some reason, people preferred different parts of the park. Rose liked going there when she got into a fight with her mum or when she was sad and didn’t want anyone to find her.

She was surprised when she came to the tree and saw a boy more or less her age sitting there already. He was playing mindlessly with a blade of grass. His hair was a mess and he looked very long and skinny.

 

“You are sitting in my place.” She said without thinking. The boy looked up and Rose saw that his brown eyes are red from crying.

 

“Sorry, didn’t know I can’t sit here,” he said while wiping his eyes quickly. “I’ll go, sorry.” He wanted to stand up, but Rose stopped him.

 

„No, wait!” The boy fell back to the grass at Rose’s shout. “I am just very sad and wanted to be alone and I was very surprised that I met someone here,” she swallowed and looked into his moist eyes then continued. “But it looks like you are sad as well and it was rude of me, because I don’t own this place and everyone can sit here, so maybe we can sit here together if you want?”

 

The boy nodded and smiled slightly. Rose smiled back at him and then sat on his right side.

 

They just sat there silently for some time. Watching the other person when they thought the other was not looking. After half an hour or so she heard the boy asking her silently. “What made you sad?”

 

Rose was surprised to hear the question. They sat there quietly and she hoped they won’t talk to each other. She wasn’t sure if she wants him to know why it was the worst day of her life.

 

“Sorry,” he started. “You said you wanted to be alone, you probably don’t want to talk about it.”

 

“Nah, that’s okay,” he was nice and in some sort of bad situation as well. She figured she doesn’t have to tell him everything. “I was meant to meet someone but they never turned up. I really was looking forward to this meeting.”

 

The boy nodded with understanding. “I’m sorry.”

 

“Thanks. What about you?”

 

The boy smiled sadly. “I just moved in and because all of this missed something very important.”

 

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

 

“Yeah, thanks.” After a few minutes of silence he spoke again. “What’s your name?”

 

“Rose Tyler,” he was nice, she thought that maybe they could become friends and at least one good thing would happen that awful day. “And you?”

 

“I’m James Noble,” he smiled and gave her his hand. “It’s nice to meet you despite these unfortunate circumstances.”

 

Rose smiled back at him and nodded.

 

After that they started talking and getting to know each other. Just like Rose, James was 10 years old too. It turned out that he will join her class next semester. He moved from Scotland with his family because his dad got a job at one of London’s universities. His dad was a well known Astrophysicist and James would like to be like him in the future. He had a sister who was his twin - she was 25 minutes older than him and in his opinion they looked nothing alike.

It started getting darker and they realised they spent most of the day just sitting and talking.

“I think I have to go. My parents will be worried, which way are you heading?”

 

“There. She nodded to the left. I live on the Powell Estate and you?”

 

“Same way. Can I go with you?”

 

“Sure.”

 

They spent the short walk talking some more. It was real fun talking to James. He knew a lot of things and it seemed that his mouth was never stopping, but he wasn’t rude and always asked Rose about her opinion on the topics they talked about. He made her forget at least a bit that the day was a disaster.

 

“That would be me,” said Rose when they approached her block. “I’m really glad I met you today.” She smiled at him.

 

“Me too,” he scratched the back oh his neck. “Listen as I said we just moved to the city. I don’t really know anyone here. I was wondering if you would like to meet again? Show me around?”

 

“Yeah, I would like that.”

 

“Really?”

 

“Of course. I had a good time today. Even if the start was a bit dramatic. Meet me here tomorrow at 10?”

 

“I’ll be here. Till tomorrow, Rose Tyler.” He grinned maniacally at her and then run away.

 

Rose giggled at him and went upstairs bracing herself for the conversation with her mum. Even though, the soulmark was only visible to the soulmates, Jackie knew perfectly well when Rose was meant to meet her soulmate, because since Rose learned numbers she was constantly talking about it and counting the days.

 

When Rose saw Jackie’s smiling face she started crying again. Jackie immediately took her in her arms. “What is it Rose? Did they do something to you?”

 

Rose shook her head and tried to calm herself a bit. “They never showed. I... I thought it’s impossible, but my clock just stopped at one second to go and it’s stuck like that from hours now.”

 

“Oh baby. Go to you room, change into something comfortable and then we will sit and you’ll explain everything to me. I’ll make us a cuppa and come back to you.” She kissed Rose’s brow and went to the kitchen.

 

Rose told Jackie the story from the beginning. Her mum admitted that she never heard of anything like that before, but said that she was sure that Rose would meet her soulmate eventually. Rose also told her about James and that he was also sad for some reason, but she thinks that they both managed to make their day a bit better.

——

Rose meet James the next day and they explored the city. She showed him her favourite places in the neighbourhood. She took him to the best ice cream shop, where she made fun of him, because Rose was never in a ice cream shop that offered more flavours and yet all three scoops of James’ portion were banana. Then she took him to a small book shop she thought James would enjoy, she knew they had quite a big collection of science books, she was right, James loved it. At the and she took him for chips and fish. They ordered the food and went to the park to sit under their tree. Rose decided that it’s only fair for it to be ‘their tree’ now.

 

This situation repeated every day till the end of summer break. Sometimes Donna joined the pair of them, but mostly it was her and James exploring new places and making their friendship stronger.

 

Just as he told her the first day, when the school started he joined her class. He was the smartest kid in the class, but he was also very friendly and never tried to make himself look better than the others. He often helped other students with the stuff they didn’t understand, he helped Rose too. In return she helped him with the artsy stuff because he had two left hands when it came to art.

 

The years went by and when they both turned 16, Rose realised that she is developing a proper crush on James. He was no longer that gangly boy. He grew up and was really tall now, he was still skinny, but also well built (they went to the pool a few times during summer, it’s good that it was really hot on these days, Rose could blame the blush that appeared on her face when she first saw him without the t-shirt on the weather.) His hair was still a mess, but it seemed that he was now putting an effort to make it look like a mess. She realised that her best friend was drop dead gorgeous and apparently other girls saw it too. The girls who still didn’t meet their soulmates tried to get to know James better, but he didn’t pay them any attention. It made Rose happy, not that he ever showed any interest in more than friendship with her, but at least she got to spend time with him.

 

They never talked about their soulmarks, he never asked about hers and she figured he doesn’t want to talk about it. Honestly, it was easier that way, she felt happy about this unspoken agreement. She knew that their relationship will have to change one day, because long time ago she came to terms with that she is the only person with a broken soulmark, but for now she was happy.

 

A few years later they graduated from high school and were admitted to university. Rose was going to study History of Art and James Physics. As they were accepted to the same university they figured they will rent a flat together. And so after years of friendship trey became flat mates. They enjoyed living with one another. They prepared dinner together every Friday, went out with friends on Saturday and had film nights on Sundays. 

 

Rose was positively sure that she was in love with James by now. On his side nothing changed, he still saw her only as his friend, but just like years ago she was okay with it.

Sure, they snuggled on the couch every night talking about their day, he hugged her randomly and sometimes kissed her on the brow, but that’s what best friends do, right?

 

During their second year at university, their friend Jack invited them to his birthday party. It was organised in a club in the city centre, Jack loved a good party and had a lot of friends, so the place was loud and packed.

 

Rose had a long week and hoped to have a good time and it started out like that. Her and James got a drink and talked at the bar, then he asked her if she wanted to dance. She always enjoyed dancing with him, so she agreed and they joined the other people on the dance floor. The club was full and they had to dance really close to each other, and honestly, Rose loved it. After a few songs she told James that she has to go to the toilet. He nodded and told her that he would order more drinks for them.

 

When after a few minutes she came back and scanned the club looking for James she couldn’t believe her eyes. He was at the bar, but he wasn’t alone. He was there with Reinette, an exchange student from France. When they first met Rose tried to be nice to her, even though since day one she was flirting with James and with girls like that it was always difficult for Rose to be nice. Then she started being mean to Rose, probably just because she was friends with James and spent most of the time with him and he was ignoring Reinette’s attempts to interest him in her. Or at least that’s what she thought, because now they were kissing next to the bar, where everyone could see them. Rose felt tears coming to her eyes, she tried to stop them while pushing through the crowd to the exit. When she finally got there she walked to the side of the club, far from the groups of people standing in front of it and let the tears flow. She couldn’t believe that happened. He never showed interest in any person, she knew it would happen one day, but still wasn’t quite prepared.

 

She was sobbing quietly when from behind her she heard his voice. “Oh Rose, I was looking for you. Please look at me, don’t cry. What happened?” He hugged her tightly to his chest.

 

He had no idea. “It’s nothing, that’s stupid.”

 

“I’m sure it’s not, please darling don’t cry.”

 

His words cleared Rose’s mind a little and she freed herself from his embrace. “Please, don’t call me like that. I’m sure your girlfriend wouldn’t be happy about it.” She whispered.

 

“What,” James frowned. “My girlfr... Rose you know I don’t have a girlfriend.”

 

“Oh stop acting, James. I saw you and

Reinette kissing. I’m just sad you didn’t tell me.”

 

“Wha... no, Rose! She is certainly not my girlfriend. I didn’t even kiss her, she came to me, I told her to leave me and said that I’m waiting for you and then she started kissing me. I freed myself right after and told her to never talk to me again. I’m sorry it made you sad. I don’t care about her at all.”

 

Rose bite her lip. “It looked a bit different from where I was standing. I... it really made me sad, I thought we talk about all of the important things and you never told me you you are interested in Reinette.”

 

“Rose, how could I be interested in her when I already love you?” His eyes grew impossibly big and he run his hand through his hair.

 

Rose’s eyes filled with tears again. “Really?”

 

James swallowed and nodded. “Hundred percent sure.”

 

Rose grinned and said. “Well that’s good, because I love you too, James Noble.”

Right after she finished the sentence they both gasped and a shiver went through their bodies. They both looked at their wrists. The clocks that were showing 00:00:01 from years now changed and finally showed them the names of the perfect person.

 

“I can’t believe it. It’s not broken. It’s you.” Rose grinned, happy tears were now flowing down her face. When she looked up, she saw James had tears in his eyes too.

 

“I so wanted it to be you,” he whispered, then he cupped her check and lowered his face to hers. “If I knew it was all I needed to do, I would tell you how much I love you years ago, Rose Tyler.” Then he caught her lips in a kiss. They kissed for a long time ignoring the whistling and happy shouting from their other friends.

 

“About time.” Shouted Jack with a smile on his face. About time, exactly.


End file.
